- Rheya combines emergency battery power with software designed to predict sewage spills
- Power failures at pumping stations can turn routine power outages into environmental pollution
- Rheya battery will predict the underlying causes of spills before they occur
British startup Rheya Labs has developed backup batteries designed specifically to keep sewage pumping stations running during blackouts across the UK.
The company was named as one of 20 finalists in Ofwat’s £7.5m Water Discovery Challenge, run by the Water Innovation Fund.
Each finalist receives up to £100,000 in seed funding, which is part of a wider £7.5m pot spread over 20 months.
Another approach to an old problem
Sewage spills are a long-standing, common problem, often caused by overloaded systems or heavy rainfall.
England recorded around 290,000 stormwater discharges during 2025, lasting around 1.9 million hours in total across the network.
Power outages at pumping stations are widely recognized as a trigger for these spills, along with heavy rainfall and aging infrastructure
Rheya Labs is now working on a system that pairs instant battery backup with software designed to flag failures before they cause spillage.
When power outages hit, Rheya’s batteries instantly take over the pumps and prevent raw sewage from flowing into rivers and streets.
The system also uses machine learning to pump data with the aim of predicting the underlying causes of spills before they occur.
Co-founder Ben Taylor said sewage pollution remains an ever-growing crisis across the UK, calling power resilience at pumping stations a hidden but significant cause.
Predictive analytics can give Rheya the edge
Elsewhere, Sydney Water has trialled sodium-ion battery packs at its Bondi pumping station, offering a cheaper alternative to lithium-ion systems.
The Australian project, supported by a $10.6 million grant, pairs a 30-kWh sodium-ion pack with rooftop solar generation for backup power.
In New York, Viridi’s 150 kWh lithium-ion battery system replaced diesel generators and provided backup power for between 32 and 90 hours.
Unlike those systems, Rheya’s technology reportedly combines immediate power backup with predictive analytics, potentially detecting failures before failures actually occur.
“With our rapidly changing climate, it is more important than ever that we redouble our efforts to create a water system capable of supporting lives and livelihoods,” said Jo Jolly, Ofwat’s director of innovation.
“The range of new ideas from new players is astounding. The challenge is to get those ideas to deliver impact on the ground with the sense of urgency these times need.”
Whether Rheya’s approach actually outperforms established sodium-ion and lithium-ion systems is so far unproven outside of controlled trials and early pilot implementations.
Independent verification of Rheya’s spill-prediction claims has yet to emerge in public trials, leaving the early results largely anecdotal for now.
Up to ten finalists, potentially including Rheya, will share £550,000 each next April, funding further testing before wider rollout across the water network.
The success of this project will ultimately depend on whether predictive software matches the reliability already demonstrated by simpler sodium and lithium alternatives.
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